The Storehouse and Café

The Storehouse tackles food poverty and food waste by intercepting surplus and unwanted food from partners across Bradford, sorting and storing it, and redistributing it to people in need.

Our Storehouse Café serves delicious and healthy meals on a pay-as-you-feel basis. All of our food is intercepted ‘unwanted’ food, rescued from being thrown away just because it is surplus to somebody’s requirements.

Where our food comes from

Our partners donate food that is ‘unwanted’, which could be because they have over-ordered / over-produced, or because the food is nearing or past its best before date. All of our food is safe and of excellent quality, merely surplus to somebody else’s requirements.

Our food partners include supermarkets, wholesalers, local markets and other local traders.

In our first year, we intercepted 80 tonnes of food that would have otherwise gone to landfill.

What we do with our food

Our café team turn some of the food into delicious and healthy meals, serving them on a pay-as-you-feel basis in our Storehouse Café.

We also distribute food and meals to community groups across Bradford – if your group would be interested in benefiting from this provision, please get in touch.

We are also piloting mini markets in community centres around the city, to get fresh fruit and vegetables out to people in need.

The Café

The Storehouse Café is currently open 10am-3pm from Tuesdays to Thursdays, at 116 Caledonia Street, Bradford, BD4 7BQ – just south of Bradford city centre. We are around 7 minutes’ walk from Bradford Interchange, or 12 minutes’ walk from City Park.

Menu and pricing – what is pay-as-you-feel?

Our menu changes daily, depending on what food is available. However, it is always high quality and delicious and we always offer a choice of dishes.

All of our meals are served on a pay-as-you-feel basis: our food is given away, and recipients can choose to give back financial donations, their time, energy or skills as they see fit. Simply order at the counter and your meal will be served with an envelope, in which you can make a fair donation as you feel appropriate.

Speciality coffees, Mad Hatter Teas, soft drinks and cakes are also available to purchase at fixed rates.

Bradford SOUP

The Storehouse Café is the venue for Bradford SOUP, a partnership between Inn Churches and Bradford Bronte Rotary Club.

Working in partnership: food hub

We partner with FareShare and Bradford Council’s Department of Public Health to provide a central food distribution hub for organisations across the district. In 2016 this hub contributed towards over 110,000 meals provided by community groups for those in need.

In our warehouse, we also provide storage for food banks and other community food projects.

The Meal Provision in Bradford booklet gives details of all of the organisations providing food on a free or pay-as-you-feel basis, without a referral being needed. Copies of the booklet are available at the Storehouse Café, or can be downloaded from the Wellsprings website.